Day 13: Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

“When the change was made uptown, and the big man joined the band”

Tonight was a show for The Big Man. At least that’s the feeling I got. It started off like a mid 80’s set, opening with Born in the USA. Then rarities in Roulette and Lucky Town. Then something happened. The teleprompter screwed up. Bruce screamed backstage about it and while they were trying to fix it, he sat down and told us a story during the intro to Growin’ Up. About how his Grandma would let him stay up until 3am at the age of 5 so he could watch Superman. How after 3am TV went off and there was nothing on! How this routine meant that when he started going to school he was still staying up until 3am. And how after leaving school he got a job (rock star) where he could still stay up until 3am. He described this as a “little victory”.

A few standards followed; Wrecking Ball, Death to my Hometown, High Hopes, Just Like Fire Would. Then BAM Lost in the Flood, BAM Spirit in the Night. And then it happened. Born to Run. Start to finish.

Bruce has been closing gigs on this tour with a solo acoustic Thunder Road. I love the song more than anything, but I’m not a fan of the solo acoustic version. So hearing the full version last night was incredible. The band adds so much to that song. I sung every word. And hearing the proper version last night reminded me why I have those lyrics framed on my desk at work. It truly is something special.

Then Tenth Avenue. The regular tribute to The Big Man and Danny. During the intro though, Bruce shouted “Take it Clarence!” right before the horns came in. Then during the video montage on the screen he stared and pointed at the image of Clarence for a long time. This was for him. Night was next. Jake went to go back to where the horns stand, but Bruce told him to stand directly to his right. Clarence’s spot. Seeing Bruce Springsteen, Max Weinberg, Steve Van Zandt, Garry W Tallent, Roy Bittan and a Clemons directly to Bruce’s right all playing that album was…life completing.

Another incredible performance of Backstreets. Roof raising one of Born to Run. Nils ripping it up with She’s The One. The oft forgotten Meeting Across the River was absolutely magical with just Bruce, Roy, Garry and Curt Ramm on stage. And then it happened again Jungleland. This time with an extended solo. Bruce telling Jake to keep going. For The Big Man? One can only guess. And then as is tradition, the members of the band who made that album took a bow. Bruce, Max, Stevie, Garry and Roy. And Bruce made Jake come up and join them. Again, directly to his right. Clemons. Springsteen. Weinberg. Van Zandt. Tallent. Bittan. It could’ve been 25 years ago. All that was missing was Danny.

It was a night that showed us what songs Bruce knows without the teleprompter. There was a couple of interesting moments. Bruce wanting to start Sunny Day but Steve not having his guitar ready in time. “Come on Steve…oh Steve!” then Bruce’s guitar tech Kevin Buell joining in the “1 2 3 4!”. An EPIC solo on Tom Joad by Tommy Morello, this came after he took High Hopes to another level and was forced to dump his guitar when Bruce wanted him out near the crowd with him during Wrecking Ball.

Just before the encore started Bruce referenced the troubles of last night. “Got a note saying we’ve got 20 minutes left, you can all hitchhike home can’t you?”. We Are Alive got us off to a start then Ramrod and Bobby Jean showed everyone Bruce had no interest in any curfew. An extended Dancing in the Dark and Twist & Shout, before finally winding up with “This Hard Land” meant the gig had gone on a full 50 minutes after Bruce told us he had 20 minutes left. The whole gig totalled 3 hours 48 minutes. Supposedly one of his longest ever. And nobody who stuck it out to the end was complaining. We’d just seen something incredible. Something special. Something for The Big Man.

 

Day 9: Heat Wave

(I’m writing this a few days later)

Talk about ridiculous. As Bruce said, “I thought it was hot yesterday. What the fuck is going on?”. 40+ degree heat for a second roll call in a row made the wait to be let in rather unpleasant. As soon as we were all ticked off and wristbanded we all scattered under the car park seeking shade. Once we were let in, Adelaide Entertainment Centre’s air conditioning was a god send.

And what a show. Well worth the wait. Backstreets AND Jungleland. In the same show! Better Days. Long Walk Home. The first ever live performance of Hunter of Invisible Games. Just incredible. Bruce seemed a touch off, apparently he was absolutely stuffed the night before. 3.5 hour show + 40 degrees isn’t going to end well for anyone, even Bruce. But even Bruce at 95% is still infinitely better than almost anyone.

Again, stood up the back. Dead centre between the fender speakers this time. Great view. Got to have him crowd surf right over me too. Fantastic night. Now, off to Melbourne!

Day 8: Human Touch

Better writers than I could tell you about last nights gig, Bruce’s first in Adelaide. All the superlatives would be justified. Amazing. Incredible. Life changing. All of it. But I’ll leave that to them to describe. Instead I wanted to write about the other side of being at a Bruce gig. The Bruce fans.

So, as Bruce noticed, it was VERY hot in Adelaide yesterday. 40 degrees (105 Fahrenheit) while we were queuing outside. As soon as we got wristbanded I, along with others, retreated to the shade of the nearby car park. It was much cooler in there, since the concrete had been in the shade all day. While I was there I got talk to the people around me. A woman named Linda was also from Melbourne, Kinglake so right near me. We got talking about Adelaide and the heat and then the bushfires back in Melbourne. She talked about Black Saturday (for those not familiar with this day, it was a severe day of bushfires in Melbourne. 3500 buildings destroyed and 173 people killed) and how she’d lost her home and everything she owned that day.

She told me how they’d only left 10 minutes before the firefront came through. It was 4 in the afternoon but due to the smoke the sky was pitch black. They fled to Yea (a nearby town) and that waiting there was the worst. All the families there weren’t being told anything, they were in the dark. But that family members and friends were ringing/texting them with news and rumours of what was going on and that just made everything worse. They couldn’t go back to see the former site of their home until the Tuesday, and that everything was gone.

She said the thing that really got you was the little things you can’t replace. Things you’ve had all your life. A toy from when you were a child. Things your children played with growing up. Things you never really think about until they’re gone. Included in this was a massive collection of Crowded House memorabilia and and equally large collection of Bruce Springsteen things. But that the word had gotten to Crowded House and Springsteen fan clubs and the like, and people had donated things from their own collections to her. For no cash return or incentive or anything. Just because it was someone in need who needed help. What Linda learnt from this, she told me, was that while there will always be people who make you question if there are any good people left, in times of need the goodness in the human race will always come through.

Inside I sat down next to two guys. A guy who looked to be in his 50’s/60’s, and his son. The father was a massive Springsteen fan, had traveled around Australia seeing him but never thought he’d get the chance to see him in his own hometown of Adelaide. The son meanwhile had seen a couple of Bruce DVDs but had never actually seen him live. The father showed me pictures of his Springsteen collection including a Born in the USA era guitar, signed by the whole band including Clarence and Danny. He also told me about seeing him in Sydney last year and how Bruce opening solo with Devils & Dust had brought him to tears.

The gig got underway and the father was loving it. He even got a handshake from The Boss when he was standing up on the walkway in the middle of the pit. He looked absolutely thrilled. Meanwhile the son looked somewhat like me at my first Bruce gig last year. Kind of a stunned, “what in the name of god is happening to me” look on his face. No doubt he’ll now become the kind of Bruce diehard we all are.

And that was just three stories from that pit. Anywhere you turn at a Bruce roll call or in the pit you’ll probably be able to find people and stories like this. Hopefully for Linda and the two gentlemen I was in the pit next to, the gig was everything they imagined it would be.

Day 6: Something In The Night

So it’s come to this. My final night in the glorious city of Perth. Tomorrow I fly out to Adelaide (at 8.30am in the morning, what idiot booked a flight that early? Oh right. Me.) and 40 degree roll calls. Obviously not much happened today besides packing, and a moment of outrage upon discovering nothing opened in Perth until 11am on Sundays, so I thought I’d use this time to reflect on my time here.

I’ve been to Perth a couple of times before, both for football. But both were very quick visits. Here and back again basically. So this is the first time I’ve had the chance to look around and get to know the people of Perth. And it’s been glorious. I made a joke on Twitter when I arrived about it being a suburb that got made a city by default, because it is SO much less busy than Melbourne. But I’ve really grown to like that. Melbourne is so hustle-and-bustle, which I’ve grown accustomed to, that my time here was really a nice change. From the pleasant weather to the friendly people, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here.

Also it was my first experience with real die hard Springsteen fans and the roll call. As I said the other day, a wonderful experience. People who just “get it” the way I do. Before I left people back home thought I was crazy doing a tour this big. But in just a few days here I’ve meet a heap of people who are doing the exact same thing, and people who wish they could. They get it.  The spirit (in the night), the camaraderie, and the respect everyone shows each other has been the most rewarding aspect of it. And this is only the start of the tour! So those of us doing most of/the whole thing will only get to know each other better and have more great times in the weeks ahead.

So this is it. My farewell (for now) to Perth. I need to give shout outs to Perth Arena for being a fantastic arena. To the Springsteen WA Facebook page, who after all are the reason he came here in the first place. To the Pensione Hotel, a very nice hotel that’s served me well these 6 nights, I’d recommend it. And finally, to the people I’ve met. To Rob, Tino, Verity, Paul, Cameron, Sam, Ted, the gentleman from Milan, the two gentlemen I stood next to last night whose names I never actually got, the countless others whose names I’ve forgotten (get used to that) and those who I’ve interacted with on Twitter but am yet to meet due to not doing the last two roll calls. To those I’ll see later on the tour, I eagerly await seeing you then. To those who are only doing these shows, you’ve made my time in Perth a pleasure and hopefully we’ll meet again sometime soon.

Time to get serious

IT’S coming and I can’t stop it. Less than 4 weeks until I leave for Perth and begin this crazy adventure. Everything’s organised. Flights, tickets, hotels, things to do in certain cities etc. It’s ready to go. Planning it has been slightly stressful but, for the most part, enjoyable. Looking for the best/most affordable accomodation in each city was by far the most challenging but now that it’s all done it’ll hopefully pay off on the road. Really nothing left to do now except wait and enjoy it when it comes.

Obviously the centrepiece of the trip will be the gigs. Thirteen in total. Ranging from Perth to Auckland. It’s hard to describe a Springsteen concert to someone who’s never experienced it first hand. It really is like nothing else. People’s reactions to my tour seem to be split into two camps; those who have never seen Bruce before (“Why are you seeing him thirteen times?”) and those that have (“Oh I wish I could do that”). Combine that with the new album out in a weeks time, High Hopes, and it promises to be a fantastic series of gigs. However they’ll also be, to use Tom Morello’s words, “Orthopedically exhausting”.

What I’m really looking forward to though is the traveling. It’s 5 weeks going around Australia. What a chance to explore! I’ve structured it so I’ve got at least one (usually more) “days off” in each city. By day off I mean a day where I’m not traveling or going to a gig. So I’ll have time to look around, see new places, and basically just take my time. The only city outside Melbourne I’ve really spent an extended period of time in is Brisbane, so this time around I’ll be able to see every other city properly.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter will also know of my love of burgers. And my quest to find the best in Melbourne. Well, now that extends Australia wide. There’s little doubt this trip will feature a LOT of burger trips. Pictures, thoughts. The lot. Given it’s Oscars season I’ll probably wind up seeing a lot of movies on the road too. I do love movies so. Great chance to see a lot of different cinemas around Australia too. Not a big deal to a lot of people, but old theatres can be absolutely beautiful. Pictures of them!

Speaking of pictures, there’s going to be a lot. Just get ready for it now. They’ll be uploaded over at my Flickr but also a few here. I’m also looking at doing Video Blogs rather than just written ones. Why? I don’t know. Just something different. Maybe more interesting. Who knows. Hopefully they’ll be daily. But again, let’s find out. Hopefully it’ll all be interesting to follow.

That’s all for now. These are going to start becoming a lot more regular as I get closer to leaving. I can’t wait. Bring it on.

Tour update – October

Tickets:

Perth 1 – Pit
Perth 2 – A Reserve Seat
Perth 3 – Pit

Adelaide 1 – Pit
Adelaide 2 – Pit

Melbourne 1 – Pit
Melbourne 2 – Pit

Sydney – Pit

Hunter Valley 1 – Pit
Hunter Valley 2 – Pit

Brisbane – Pit

Auckland 1 – A Reserve Seat
Auckland 2 – Pit

All flights booked. Every flight is QANTAS bar the flights to and from New Zealand, which are Emirates. All that’s left is to book the hotels (the really painful bit money wise). I’ve already booked Hunter Valley but the rest is yet to be done. Will try and stick with my reliable Accor, but will see what I find. And once that’s done everything’s booked and this tour is fully paid off and actually happening. Holy crap.

Success!

Perth 1 – Seat
Perth 2 – Pit

Adelaide – Pit

Melbourne 1 – Pit
Melbourne 2 – Pit

Sydney – Pit

Hunter Valley – Pit

Brisbane – Pit

 

Can. Not. Wait. 

People who ask me why I’m doing this…

Tickets

Ugh. What a stressful day. Pre-sales started at 12pm (for Melbourne) and that went fine, got a Front Zone standing ticket no worries. Then the trouble started. Seems the demand for Bruce was so high that Ticketek’s website crumbled at the time of the Sydney sale. Even using my old trick of using the mobile site wasn’t enough to get me a Floor ticket for Sydney. Seems I wasn’t the only one too judging by Twitter. People were blasting Frontier Touring and Ticketek about being stuck on the “Queue” page, the site crashing and running extremely slowly.

Ultimately though, I was mostly successful. Barring Brisbane (Will wait until Monday) I’m ready to go for each gig. Pending extra shows announced of course!

Perth: Seat (for now…)
Adelaide: Pit
Melbourne: Pit
Sydney: Pit
Hunter Valley: Pit
Brisbane: To buy Monday

Hard times. But this is what we Springsteen fans put ourselves through…

Alarms

When it comes to buying tickets, to say I’m prepared is an understatement.